Polish government starts new writers' union

Polish government moved to set up a new writers' guild more to its liking than the respected, independent Polish Writers' Union (ZLP) it dissolved Friday. With that dissolution, Polish authorities completed a purge of intellectual groups associated with the banned Solidarity trade union.

Polish state television said more than 80 writers met Saturday and eulogized the ZLP. But many of them were Communist Party members or establishment figures, and the television said they called for a new guild that would be open to all and that would ''respect the system and laws of the people's republic.''

The authorities have also launched a propaganda campaign against Solidarity's leader, Lech Walesa, calling him a figure of ridicule and accusing him of working against his own people.